Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria

The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria occupies the top floor of the Palazzo dei Priori, the great Gothic palace that dominates Piazza IV Novembre. Its collection covers Umbrian painting from the 13th to 18th centuries and includes major works by Perugino (whose altarpieces are among the finest examples of central Italian Renaissance painting), Pintoricchio, Fra Angelico (on loan from Florence), and Piero della Francesca.

The sequence of rooms moves chronologically, and the jump from medieval gold-ground panels to the clear architectural space of the early Renaissance rooms is one of the sharpest transitions in any Italian regional gallery. The building itself is also remarkable — the Sala dei Notari on the ground floor is one of the finest Gothic interiors in Umbria, with fresco cycles covering every surface. Allow at least two hours; more if you take the building seriously.

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A story
The gallery holds the most important collection of Umbrian painting anywhere in the world, and its most famous work is also its most confounding: Pietro Perugino's altarpiece of the Adoration of the Magi. Perugino — born Pietro Vannucci in the village of Città della Pieve — was Raphael's teacher, and in his day was considered one of Italy's greatest painters. He was also, famously, a notorious sceptic: Giorgio Vasari records that Perugino refused to take religious commissions on any terms that required him to depict heaven, since he did not believe in it.